Durkee Fire along I-84 between Rye Valley (Exit 340) and Weatherby (Exit 335), Oregon July 24, 2024. Credit: Oregon Department of Transportation
A new bill in Oregon would incentivize wildfire prevention efforts by offering homeowners property insurance discounts.
The bill would require insurers to take policyholders’ wildfire prevention investments, like installing fire-resistant siding or roofing, into account when setting rates using wildfire risk modeling. For insurers that don’t use catastrophic planning models, the bill would require the insurer to give the policyholder some discount on their premium or another incentive when they prove they’ve taken mitigation measures.
Introduced by Oregon Sen. Jeff Golden, the bill is modeled after a similar law in Colorado.
Currently, insurers in Oregon must provide homeowners with information on whether and how they consider wildfire prevention efforts when it comes to setting rates or making underwriting decisions. But they don’t have to offer any incentives for those prevention efforts.
“Despite homeowners investment in home hardening and defensible space, and despite public investments in community-level mitigation, many, if not all, insurers are not taking these mitigation measures into account in the computer models they use to price and to decide whether to write or renew insurance, what’s called underwriting,” said Dave Jones, former California insurance commissioner, at a recent meeting of Oregon’s Senate Natural Resources and Wildfire Committee.
Rising wildfire risk in the West has boosted premiums in Oregon by more than 27% since 2020, according to the Consumer Federation of America. Policy cancellations and non-renewals for areas deemed too risky have also become more common.
In order to qualify for discounted rates, the bill would require any home-hardening measures to meet approved standards set by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety,
Photo credit: Oregon Department of Transportation
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